1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to the field of printing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for storing accessories such as a battery pack, an electronic circuit board, a paper tray or other similar components, within an otherwise wasted space in a printing device, such as a printer or typewriter.
2. Background Information
Printing devices of the general type with which the present invention is concerned, relate to printers, typewriters and similar equipment having a carriage assembly used to print characters or graphics on a printing medium such as paper. The mobility of contemporary society has generally imposed limitations on the physical size and weight of these printing devices.
As a result, efforts have been made to meet the foregoing limitations by developing portable printing devices which are intended to be compact in size, and light in weight. However, none of the conventional portable printing devices has been totally satisfactory in optimizing the use of the space reserved for the sweeping movement or path of travel of the carriage assembly. The waste caused by the inability to use the swept volume during storage or transportation limits the effectiveness of the portability feature of the conventional printing devices.
An attempt to optimize the use of the volume in a portable printer has been to connect the batteries in the form of a pack, and to store the pack in a tubular platen assembly. While this solution may have contributed to some reduction of the overall size of the printer, it has not addressed the problem of reducing the waste in the swept volume of the carriage assembly.
It is therefore highly desirable to have a new and improved method and apparatus for further reducing the physical size of the printing devices, by optimizing the use of the space reserved for the swept volume of the carriage assembly, without obstructing its path of travel during operation.